


In a World Where No One Remembers You

by VenomQuill



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara's loyalty is neutral, Gen, The mains are here, basically after the Asriel fight but before freedom, but they're not important, post-pre-pacifist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-08
Updated: 2018-11-08
Packaged: 2019-08-20 16:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16559486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenomQuill/pseuds/VenomQuill
Summary: Everyone knows the final battle... they've gone through it and battled a god... but a god's threats aren't necessarily hollow.





	In a World Where No One Remembers You

**Author's Note:**

> Find it on dA: ["In a World Where No One Remembers You"](http://fav.me/dcrhdcy)

Frisk shook their head. Murmuring and chatting surrounded them. Frisk pulled their head up and looked around. Monsters chatted avidly to one another. Frisk perked up and scrambled to their feet. “Guys!”

The monsters interrupted their talking. Dr. Alphys squeaked, “Th-they’re alive?!”

Frisk cocked their head. “Yes, I am. Why? Did I die?”

“No, my child,” Toriel comforted. “When we woke up here… you didn’t wake with the rest of us. But… what are you doing here?”

“What do you mean?” Frisk asked. They looked over the confused faces of the people who surrounded them. “I… I defeated Flowey and helped break the barrier. What do you mean _what am I doing here?_ Hypothetically? Literally?”

“ _You_ broke the barrier?” This statement came from Asgore. “Excuse me, young one, but… humans cannot absorb the souls of other humans. How–”

“Not _literally,_ ” Frisk scoffed. “I meant, with Flowey who took the souls and then the entire Underground’s souls. All together he was able to use them to break the barrier. But we fought… and… why are you all looking at me like that?”

“I-I am sorry,” Toriel stuttered. “I am afraid I do not know what you mean. There was a flower, yes, but… I do not remember seeing you there.”

Murmurs of agreement rose up from the other monsters. Undyne huffed, “Yeah! I think I’d remember seeing a human down here! How’d you even get here?”

“I traveled here, Undyne!” Frisk countered. “I got past all of you. I nearly had to fight you, Asgore! But luckily you guys came in to stop him. Then Flowey appeared, took the souls, tried to kill me, you guys saved me, and then he took everyone else’s souls! He used that magic–after a lot of persuading–” _“And dying,”_ Frisk thought bitterly before continuing, “–from me.”

The monsters looked at each other. Dr. Alphys piped up, “I-I think I’d r-r-remember seeing you o-on my cameras. Um…”

“Yeah, I know,” Frisk huffed. “I saw your cameras everywhere. Come _on,_ guys! Stop it! I just battled a god, I don’t need this.” Frisk’s gaze locked with Sans. “Sans! Come on, help me knock some sense into these guys!”

“sorry, kid.” Sans shrugged. “gotta agree with these guys.” He looked them over all the same, confused but not in the way the other monsters were.

“EXCUSE ME, HUMAN!” Papyrus took a few steps forward and held out his hand. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT, BUT MY NAME IS PAPYRUS, FUTURE REALLY-FAMOUS-ROYAL-GUARDSMAN! WHO ARE YOU?”

“Who am I?” Frisk echoed. “You… you really don’t remember me? Come on, guys!” Frisk looked around at the gathered people, taking a step back. “This isn’t funny! Papyrus, remember that hang-out we went on at your place? You’d put me through a whole bunch of puzzles and then fought me and we got to be friends and you gave me pasta? That was fun, wasn’t it?”

Papyrus’ eyebrows contracted. “O-OH. OH, I, UH… WELL… UH… HUMAN! PERHAPS I DON’T, UH, RECOGNIZE YOU NOW. BUT! THAT DOESN’T MEAN–”

Frisk growled and turned to Undyne. “When I first went through the Underground, you hunted me down until we got to the end of Waterfall. You fought me, but I kept running away. When you got to Hotland, you overheated so I threw some water at you. Then Papyrus threw us together so we _had_ to be friends! You don’t remember that? That we accidentally burned down your house? Toriel, when I first fell down here, Flowey tried taking my soul. B-but you saved me and then taught me how to survive the Underground! You made cinnamon-butterscotch pie and tried to warn me away from leaving, but I had to leave. Dr. Alphys, you have to remember watching my journey. Then asking Mettaton for help so that you could set up this elaborate scheme to put me in puzzles and then save me from them? Sans, buddy, you remember watching over me to make sure I didn’t die and then threatening me not to kill anyone and being cool, right? Like when you met me just outside the Ruins or invited me to Grillby’s or the expensive restaurant? Doesn’t this sound familiar to anyone?”

Toriel shook her head. “No, my child. I’m sorry.”

Asgore tipped his head. “Are you sure you’re not from the surface?”

Frisk stamped their foot. “You guys can’t just _forget_ about me like this! Sure, I’ve only known you for a day, b-but we’ve still gone through so much–” Frisk swore at the traitorous crack in their voice. Their hand went up to the pendent around their neck. _“Best Friends Forever.”_ It faded from a bright scarlet into a deep blue. “This can’t be happening. This… this is just part of the dream. It has to be. I just… haven’t woken up, yet. I-I mean, battling a _God of Hyperdeath_ isn’t exactly relaxing, right? I mean, who would know, but–”

 _“I can feel it… Every time you die, your grip on this world slips away. Every time you die, your friends forget you a little more. Your life will end here, in a world where no one remembers you…”_ Asriel’s voice rang in their ears.

Frisk sucked in their breath. “Flowey.” With that, they spun around and darted off. “I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!” Frisk yelled over their shoulder.

The run from the former barrier to the Ruins was long. Sure, there were elevator rides and the Riverperson was quick enough. Still, it took time. It took energy.

“Tra la la…” the Riverperson hummed. “Beware the man that speaks in hands…”

“Sure,” Frisk mumbled, sitting on the edge of the boat and watching their broken reflection on the surface of the water. Eventually, the boat stopped.

“We’re at Snowdin. Tra la la…”

“Thanks.” Frisk hopped onto the snowy ground and tore through the forest. A couple of ice caps stumbled out of the way and the Snowdrake family fluttered, surprised by the young human’s sudden and quickly passing appearance. Thankfully, the door to the Ruins was open so Frisk was easily able to pass from Snowdin to the Ruins.

Eventually, Frisk found themselves approaching the bed of golden flowers.

Standing above the bed was Asriel, watching the flowers with soft, sad eyes.

“Asriel!” Frisk called.

Calm as could be, Asriel turned around. “Frisk?”

“Yeah. Why does no one remember me?” Frisk challenged.

Asriel’s eyebrows went up. “No one remembers you?” His look of shock melted, and he retreated into his shirt. “No one remembers you…”

“Yeah, why?” Frisk asked. “Fix it!”

Asriel rubbed his arm. “Look, Frisk, it’s not as simple as that.”

“What do you mean _it’s not as simple as that?”_ Frisk spat. “You did this, you fix it!”

“I permanently altered the timeline,” Asriel stated. “I’m sorry. There’s nothing I can do, now. Maybe if I still had my powers, but… but even then, I don’t know.”

“Well, what if I got back to a time _before_ you took over?” Frisk prompted.

“You can’t. Your SAVE file is here, after I meddled with the timeline.” The young prince sighed. “I’m sorry, Frisk. But you’ve been forgotten.”

“…do people on the surface remember me?” Frisk mumbled. Hope still flared in their chest. Maybe… maybe it wasn’t all bad…

“I don’t know,” Asriel admitted. “But seeing as the Underground runs on the same timeline that the surface does… it’s possible that… well, hopefully they do. Maybe they do.”

 _“Your life will end here, in a world where no one remembers you…”_ Asriel’s words hissed in Frisk’s ears again.

Their locket turned form blue to silver. Their shoulders slumped, and they sighed. “Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Maybe. Just… do they still remember what happened because of me? Are Undyne and Alphys a thing? Did Alphys release those amalgamates?”

“The consequences of your actions are still here,” Asriel admitted. “But… no one remembers who, exactly, did them. Maybe they think that they did them themselves. I’m sorry, Frisk. I can’t help you.”

Frisk nodded slowly. “I… I get it. Yeah. They’re, um… they’re probably going to the surface by now.”

“I’m not going to be here much longer,” Asriel admitted. “Soon I’ll turn back into a flower.”

“And no one will remember what you did,” Frisk mused and sat down. “I just… I’ll stay here a while longer, okay?”

Asriel nodded and turned back to the flowers. “Sure thing, Frisk.”

 

Frisk blinked open her eyes. Asriel wasn’t in sight. Huh. Maybe that little nap went on longer than she–

“Hello.”

Frisk yelped and jumped. Beside her sat another child like Frisk. Unlike Frisk’s freshly cut hair, the child’s naturally messy hair was thrown over her ears to reveal sharp red eyes. “Wh-who are you?”

“It’s me, Chara,” the spirit stated. They turned their gaze to the side. Upon closer inspection, Frisk found that Asriel was there. He was quietly messing with the flowers. “He’s as gentle and quiet as ever.”

“Can he hear you?” Frisk asked.

Chara shook their head. “Nope. No one can hear me. No one but you.”

“Funny, I guess. No one remembers me but him.”

“And me, I remember you,” Chara offered. “I remember how nice and pacifistic you’ve been. You were very kind and loved these people quite a bit.” There was a pause. “But you’re letting them go to the surface on their own.”

“Yeah. What am I, some stray, random human kid, going to do?” Frisk prompted.

Chara smiled. Despite looking genuine, it was still very creepy. Perhaps it was their eyes. “With my help, of course. Frisk, I am going to be blunt. What would you do to win them back?”

“Anything!” Frisk burst out and then hesitated. “Almost anything.”

“There’s something that you and I can do that no one else can,” Chara informed them. “You know how to defeat my brother in his all-powerful state, don’t you?”

Frisk nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, now I do. After all those failed attempts…”

“But if you did it again, you might survive long enough to be remembered, correct?” Chara ventured.

Frisk nodded. “Y-yeah. What are you saying? Give him back the souls and ask for a do-over?”

Chara shrugged. “Not exactly. Frisk, if you give me something, I can promise you that I can reset this timeline back to when you fell. I can do it so perfectly, no one will ever remember this happened.”

Frisk huffed, “What’s the good in that? They already don’t remember me.”

“Correct. But! If you go back to that time, you could redo this adventure and get to know them again.” Chara paused. “And perhaps… perhaps learn some things you didn’t know this time around.”

“Like?”

“Frisk, the ability to RESET and CONTINUE can be used anywhere now that magic from the Underground has rubbed off on you,” Chara stated. “You will go back to your last Save Point. _But!_ With my help, you can RESET back to this place. No one will remember a thing. You can redo your adventure as many times as you like. In fact, if they ever forget you, you can just go back in time and do it again.”

Frisk nodded slowly. “A-alright. Well, I _could_ just do it once though, right?”

“Yep.”

“And… they truly wouldn’t remember a thing?”

“Not one moment. You could turn them all to dust and they wouldn’t remember!” Chara pointed out. “You could break them all and they wouldn’t remember. Or, you could fix all their problems and go back and do it again. You could insult them, praise them, do whatever you want. If you so wish, they wouldn’t remember.”

“That… that sounds like manipulation,” Frisk said slowly. “Like what Flowey was doing…”

“Flowey had no ability to feel love,” Chara stated with a dismissive wave of their hand. “You, though? You can feel love. You can do what’s right or what’s wrong. But you will know in your heart which way is the right way. In fact, you could just RESET and come back through this adventure and be done with it. You don’t need to do anything else. Maybe, in this next run, you could save even more people. Maybe help Whimsum overcome their fears… give Mad Dummy peace…”

“Okay, that sounds great. Now, what do I have to give?” Frisk prompted.

“So, you’ll do it?” Chara asked.

“What do I have to give?” Frisk repeated.

“Just a small price,” Chara ventured, their grin becoming an innocent smile. “Your SOUL.”

“My _what?_ ” Frisk stood up. “Nuh-uh! What would even happen if I didn’t have my soul? I could turn out like Flowey! What do you even want my soul for?”

Chara raised their hands in a calming manner. “Quiet! Calm down, calm down. I would need the power from your SOUL to do this. You can’t do it on your own, after all. You need my help.”

“What if I reset now? On my own?” Frisk prompted.

Chara raised an eyebrow. “Would you really do that to Sans? Knowingly give him sunlight and then take it away? Giving him just enough to remember feeling sunlight, but also remembering that _you_ sent him back? Asriel would turn back into Flowey. But he’d remember being Asriel, remember what he did to you. Would you really weigh that on him? Not to mention everyone else. They’d all have this weird sense of déjà vu. It wouldn’t be genuine. The only way for it to be genuine would be to do a True Reset, which only I can preform.”

“Are you sure you need my soul?” Frisk asked.

“Positive,” Chara stated.

“You aren’t going to, like, kill everyone though, right?”

“Frisk, don’t insult me. I hate humanity, but my real family were monsters. Even if I could somehow magically take over you, would you think that I would kill my own family?” Chara prompted.

Frisk shook their head. “No, no. I’m sorry, I’m just… this is really weird. But okay. I’ll do it. Take my soul. Just please, reset and make sure I’m not forgotten.”

Chara grinned. “Will do. Who knows? I might even prevent this situation from ever happening again.” She stood up and held out her hand. “Deal?”

“Deal.” Frisk took Chara’s hand. “So, uh, how do I do this?”

“Stand still.” Chara took out a blood red knife. Before Frisk could even react, the knife was plunged into their chest.

 

…

 

Frisk gasped and sat up. They sneezed and looked down. The bed of golden flowers was beneath them. The locket was no longer around their throat. Next to them was their trusty stick. They got up and walked out of the room. Flowey stood there in the patch of grass, grinning his innocent grin. “Howdy! I’m Flowey. Flowey the Flower!”

**Author's Note:**

> Sooooo, during the battle, if/when you die while ~~struggling~~ battling the Hypergod of Death, he'll remark "I can feel it... Every time you die, your grip on this world slips away. Every time you die, your friends forget you a little more. Your life will end here, in a world where no one remembers you."  
> I thought that is nuts that more people haven't capitalized on that idea. The idea of being forgotten. Even if it wasn't after the Hypergod of Death's fight after dying a million times. _*cough*likeme*cough*_


End file.
